North Korea Hasn’t Shown Nuclear Missile Ability: Clapper

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper said North Korea hasn’t yet shown
it’s able to arm a missile with a nuclear weapon, taking issue
with another U.S. intelligence agency’s finding that the
totalitarian regime may now have that capability.

Clapper was referring to part of a report by the Pentagon’s
Defense Intelligence Agency that said North Korea now may have
some nuclear weapons small enough to be delivered by its
ballistic missiles. The DIA finding, which surfaced in a House
committee hearing earlier today, isn’t an assessment shared by
the broader U.S. intelligence community, Clapper said today in a
statement.

“North Korea has not yet demonstrated the full range of
capabilities necessary for a nuclear-armed missile,” he said.

Clapper’s remarks exposed an unusual public rift between
U.S. intelligence and national-security agencies. The episode
erupted when a portion of the defense agency’s assessment was
cited by Representative Doug Lamborn during a hearing today of
the House Armed Services Committee.

Lamborn, a Colorado Republican who’s seeking additional
money for missile defense, read the only sentence in the seven-page agency report that’s been declassified. That passage says:
“DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has
nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles
however the reliability will be low.”

George Little, a Pentagon spokesman, said later in a
statement that “it would be inaccurate to suggest that the
North Korean regime has fully tested, developed, or demonstrated
the kinds of nuclear capabilities referenced in the passage.”